Discuss some ways that you can use your art to enhance students acquiring English literacy skills.
Something that drew me to dance as a young girl was the power of dance to tell stories and to transform popular fairytales into a whole new medium. The clearest link between dance and literacy, for me, is to read one, or several, version of a story and then watch a dance performance of the story. This can be done with older students with ballets such as “Romeo & Juliet”, and “Othello”, and with younger students by looking at “Sleeping Beauty” or “The Nutcracker”. Students would be using their literacy skills to read and discuss the text and later to articulate what elements of the story they saw in the dance performance.
Another way to apply this principle is to work backwards, in a sense. Students can read a story or fable, analyze the plot and key elements, and construct a narrative dance study based on their story. In this case, since the students would be composing work themselves, I would give them more class time to work on the project, as well as show them helpful ways to structure and develop their dance projects. Now the students are using their literacy skills to read and understand literature, but they are expanding their dance skills by creating their own piece. This is the type of project I would record with a digital camera and put on my “digital bulletin board” on the class webpage.
There are also some shorter activities that can help students practice more elementary English literacy skills, such as grammar, spelling, or vocabulary. Combining dance and language arts may help many of the students in the class, especially ones who are very active and benefit from kinesthetic learning experiences. There are endless possibilities for games and activities, such as making dance sentences with a beginning, middle, and an end, creating alphabet letter shapes with their bodies, spelling on the move, or even just by simply keeping a dance journal, where students write down their favorite part of class and a new word that they learned.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
In lieu of a final exam - part 1
The three websites that I chose to discuss are Jung Min's, Gregory's and Sarah's. I've posted the following comments on their blogs, but here they are for easy viewing:
Jung Min – I like the colors that you use on your website and how they coordinate with the images you have on the page. I liked the design of your bio page, with the four small photos of you in different dance performances. I also really like the way you used tables to organize your tech assignments. I enjoyed your project page, and I spent some time tonight looking at all the music and dance links you have about Korea. Finally, I like the blog post you made about how to evaluate what kind of website your class needs.
Greg – I love the way you used the Cotton Club logo, colors, and images to give your homepage a distinctive style. I also liked your movie assignment because it was a lot like mine in the sense that you focused on an artist, or artistic movement, that is inspirational for you. You have a really interesting link on your blog – “Art Education Reform: Technology as Savior” I couldn’t access it tonight because I don’t have a JSTOR account, but I will be looking for other copies of that article.
Sarah – I learned a lot about you from your website. I know you’re a singer with an album, but I didn’t know you were a Star Trek fan! I liked your images assignment because you used the Photoshop filters very deliberately and specifically. I checked out the “Open Education” link on your project page, and I’m still looking through all the information on that page. It’s a great resource, thanks for sharing with us. I also like the inspirational quotes on your blog, and the overall layout of the page.
Jung Min – I like the colors that you use on your website and how they coordinate with the images you have on the page. I liked the design of your bio page, with the four small photos of you in different dance performances. I also really like the way you used tables to organize your tech assignments. I enjoyed your project page, and I spent some time tonight looking at all the music and dance links you have about Korea. Finally, I like the blog post you made about how to evaluate what kind of website your class needs.
Greg – I love the way you used the Cotton Club logo, colors, and images to give your homepage a distinctive style. I also liked your movie assignment because it was a lot like mine in the sense that you focused on an artist, or artistic movement, that is inspirational for you. You have a really interesting link on your blog – “Art Education Reform: Technology as Savior” I couldn’t access it tonight because I don’t have a JSTOR account, but I will be looking for other copies of that article.
Sarah – I learned a lot about you from your website. I know you’re a singer with an album, but I didn’t know you were a Star Trek fan! I liked your images assignment because you used the Photoshop filters very deliberately and specifically. I checked out the “Open Education” link on your project page, and I’m still looking through all the information on that page. It’s a great resource, thanks for sharing with us. I also like the inspirational quotes on your blog, and the overall layout of the page.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Red Team Go!
Today we basically worked on our own project pages, and Alejandro and I put links to each other's pages. I still have to work on the "Dance Sites" section of my project. We also decided to hook one of our computers up to the big screen and walk through our site for our presentation. I think the project speaks for itself, and all we have to do is navigate the class through it, and explain what we did.
As far as the other projects go -- Literacy, Music Concrete, and Podcasts -- I am WAY behind!! Thank goodness Dr. Gilbert gave us a little extension to finish our tech assignments.
_Aurora
As far as the other projects go -- Literacy, Music Concrete, and Podcasts -- I am WAY behind!! Thank goodness Dr. Gilbert gave us a little extension to finish our tech assignments.
_Aurora
Monday, June 22, 2009
Red Team Project Ideas
I've been completely off the grid for the past few days, so I have a lot of catching up to do. In general, our group is putting together a web site that can be used by our current or future students as a one-stop online resource for information, links, and files regarding their areas of study. Each section of the page will be unique to the group member who creates it. Sharon and Alejandro are music education majors, and I'm a dance education major, and our individual pages will be focused on the specific uses for technology and teaching in our discipline. We feel there is a need for a concise, easy-to-navigate hub of information that can connect our students to the vast technological resources that are available to them.
We will need a main page, with a brief description of the project (maybe something similar to what I wrote above?), and links to our individual pages, again with a brief description of the site content. The other thing we should include on this main page are links to the course website and our own homepages.
My dance page is going to be laid out something like this:
Greetings (web site is intended for my future students, so I'll try to set that up here)
Links to Class Materials (syllabus, assignments, assessment forms)
Links to media files (you tube videos, articles, webpages)
Links to Dance websites (helpful sites for students to explore)
Links to student/class work (a place to post, view, and share our work from class)
We will need a main page, with a brief description of the project (maybe something similar to what I wrote above?), and links to our individual pages, again with a brief description of the site content. The other thing we should include on this main page are links to the course website and our own homepages.
My dance page is going to be laid out something like this:
Greetings (web site is intended for my future students, so I'll try to set that up here)
Links to Class Materials (syllabus, assignments, assessment forms)
Links to media files (you tube videos, articles, webpages)
Links to Dance websites (helpful sites for students to explore)
Links to student/class work (a place to post, view, and share our work from class)
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Educational Reform, Part 2: The Performing Arts
Last time, I went on a bit of a bender about the subtle and not so subtle incongruencies between the theory and practice of progressive education. If the mission of these schools is to empower their students, some are offering little more than lip service. When these massive schools close and get broken into several small schools, the facilities are divided among the different academies. So where there once was an auditorium, music studios, dance studios, a costume shop, three gyms and five labs in one school, there is now one school with the auditorium, but no labs, another school with the dance studio but no music studio, and the third school with a gym and no shop. Space in New York is limited, and there is no simple solution. But many people overlook the issue completely. What happens to our students when they lose their performing arts programs?
Like I said before, the performing arts are the best way to empower students. Performing gives students not only a chance to create art, but to become the art itself. Students are given the chance to become musicians, dancers, singers, and actors, even if only for the duration of the class, and in performing, they are truly learning through experience. Even in technical or design elements of the performing arts, the students are going through more than an isolated exercise in class; they are contributing to and supporting in the creation of new art. Even if the students are putting up the umpteenth production of Guys and Dolls or A Raisin in the Sun, they are creating art that only exists in the moment. It only exists in their moment – the moment they are creating it. Giving students an opportunity like that is truly empowering to them, and can be very rewarding to the facilitating teacher. Sadly, all the effort can be undermined by unsupportive or disinterested administrative staff, which is exactly what I saw at this new, progressive, “student-centered” school.
In this technology course I’m taking, I started thinking about how technology can play a part in fixing the issue of not having enough space. I’m hoping to hear from others in our class and community about ways to use technology to create performing arts opportunities where there are none. Dance students can create, choreograph, and record movement studies in a relatively small space, and using some of the movie making software we are exploring in class, edit the small pieces into a larger work, and share it over the internet. Music students have endless possibilities, it seems, using programs like Audacity to create and manipulate audio. Singers and actors can practice creating a portfolio, or audition reel of sorts, using much of the same software. While technology can not replace the thrill and necessity of live performance, it may be a suitable substitute and teaching tool when space is so direly limited, as it is now in the public school system.
Like I said before, the performing arts are the best way to empower students. Performing gives students not only a chance to create art, but to become the art itself. Students are given the chance to become musicians, dancers, singers, and actors, even if only for the duration of the class, and in performing, they are truly learning through experience. Even in technical or design elements of the performing arts, the students are going through more than an isolated exercise in class; they are contributing to and supporting in the creation of new art. Even if the students are putting up the umpteenth production of Guys and Dolls or A Raisin in the Sun, they are creating art that only exists in the moment. It only exists in their moment – the moment they are creating it. Giving students an opportunity like that is truly empowering to them, and can be very rewarding to the facilitating teacher. Sadly, all the effort can be undermined by unsupportive or disinterested administrative staff, which is exactly what I saw at this new, progressive, “student-centered” school.
In this technology course I’m taking, I started thinking about how technology can play a part in fixing the issue of not having enough space. I’m hoping to hear from others in our class and community about ways to use technology to create performing arts opportunities where there are none. Dance students can create, choreograph, and record movement studies in a relatively small space, and using some of the movie making software we are exploring in class, edit the small pieces into a larger work, and share it over the internet. Music students have endless possibilities, it seems, using programs like Audacity to create and manipulate audio. Singers and actors can practice creating a portfolio, or audition reel of sorts, using much of the same software. While technology can not replace the thrill and necessity of live performance, it may be a suitable substitute and teaching tool when space is so direly limited, as it is now in the public school system.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Education Reform, Part I: Who is it for?
The "small school" movement is huge in NYC right now, which was basically Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein's solution to the dire condition our public high schools were in. By taking these massive schools, with student bodies in the thousands, and dividing them up into smaller, more focused schools, students will get more attention, better instruction, and are less likely to fall through the cracks. In theory.
The reality is that there isn't enough money for all of these schools, and to increase their funding, schools seek our partners or sponsorships with outside businesses and organizations. So, if your principal is savvy enough to get extra funding, then the students have more opportunities for trips, equipment, maybe even a performing arts program. Otherwise, the schools are on their own. This is what some educators are calling the "privatization of public schools". Or at least, my understanding of it.
The course of educational reform has never gone smoothly, and the students are usually the casualties. Solving the Dept. of Ed.'s problems will not be easy, and the small school movement has definitely had some success. I also don't like to rant about an issue that I know relatively nothing about, and that I have no alternative solution for. However - I WILL rant about some of the things I've seen in these schools that bugs me.
I went to visit a high school in the Lower East Side a few days ago, and at first, I was very impressed: the atmosphere was relaxed, the students and teachers all seemed tired, but happy (it was the end of the day in mid-June, so tired but happy is what I expected), the walls and bulletin boards were filled with student art work, some of which looked very sophisticated. One hallway was devoted to acknowledging and congratulating each of the graduating seniors who had been accepted to a college, or even awarded a scholarship. Above the entrance to the school was a banner that had the school's full name and a sort of motto "where students are empowered". I thought this all looked just fine.
As my classmates from NYU and I sat and talked with the principal, a high school student ran passed the room. The principal called her in, and invited her to sit in on our discussion. He started to tell us about her, and he was obviously very proud of this young lady. She was a talented actress and singer. She was accepted to many colleges, and chose CUNY honors on a full scholarship. She's a student government leader. She is performing in a dance festival that coming weekend. Overall, she is a well rounded, mature young woman who has a bright future. Then he said "...and she wouldn't be like this if it weren't for our school. If she were in some over-crowded, failing high school, she wouldn't be doing any of these things." The conversation moved on. I held my tongue.
The principal, the student herself, and my classmates all seemed to buy into this idea that if it weren't for THIS school, this girl would be nothing. That is not empowering the student. That, to me, is actually undermining the student in order to make yourself, your school, and your political cause look successful. What about resilience? Wouldn't this bright, talented girl be able to better herself even in a "failing" school? Isn't she responsible for her own success? I couldn't believe he was virtually taking the credit for her achievements.
As we wrapped up our tour, the principal said we were in for a real treat, and that the auditorium was free, so we could check out the space on our way out. He bragged about how the old architecture and artifacts from the early 20th century were still intact, and functioning alongside the newer, more advanced equipment and technology. Walking up to the door, I saw that a rehearsal was clearly going on. There were signs posted all over the school that the spring production of "A Raisin in the Sun" was opening in a few days. This was essentially their dress rehearsal. I asked if we wouldn't be interrupting the students at work, and the principal reassured me, that it was fine, don't worry. Now, as a performer, I know, and maybe some of you reading know how disturbing, rude, and disrespectful it is to walk into a closed rehearsal. But the principal didn't care, or even see it that way. You see, it was very important that he show off his beautiful space to these prospective teachers, and it was important that we know that they are doing a very difficult and important play such as "Raisin in the Sun". That was more important than letting the students work in peace. That is not empowering the students. That is once again, undermining them.
So there is my experience, thus far, with the new, progressive, small school movement. It's supposed to be for and about the kids. But to me it looks like an exercise in intellectualism, self-importance, and snobbery. Because if you really want to empower the students, like the motto claims, the performing arts are key. That is a tangent I may have to reserve for a separate entry. If this were about the students, he wouldn't have dragged that girl into the room and discussed her as if she were the subject of anthropology study, and he would have at least given the drama students the dignity of a closed rehearsal (or at the very least, asked the adults to keep their voices down!).
I think there is a way to empower students and give them confidence, and that lies in the performing arts...
The reality is that there isn't enough money for all of these schools, and to increase their funding, schools seek our partners or sponsorships with outside businesses and organizations. So, if your principal is savvy enough to get extra funding, then the students have more opportunities for trips, equipment, maybe even a performing arts program. Otherwise, the schools are on their own. This is what some educators are calling the "privatization of public schools". Or at least, my understanding of it.
The course of educational reform has never gone smoothly, and the students are usually the casualties. Solving the Dept. of Ed.'s problems will not be easy, and the small school movement has definitely had some success. I also don't like to rant about an issue that I know relatively nothing about, and that I have no alternative solution for. However - I WILL rant about some of the things I've seen in these schools that bugs me.
I went to visit a high school in the Lower East Side a few days ago, and at first, I was very impressed: the atmosphere was relaxed, the students and teachers all seemed tired, but happy (it was the end of the day in mid-June, so tired but happy is what I expected), the walls and bulletin boards were filled with student art work, some of which looked very sophisticated. One hallway was devoted to acknowledging and congratulating each of the graduating seniors who had been accepted to a college, or even awarded a scholarship. Above the entrance to the school was a banner that had the school's full name and a sort of motto "where students are empowered". I thought this all looked just fine.
As my classmates from NYU and I sat and talked with the principal, a high school student ran passed the room. The principal called her in, and invited her to sit in on our discussion. He started to tell us about her, and he was obviously very proud of this young lady. She was a talented actress and singer. She was accepted to many colleges, and chose CUNY honors on a full scholarship. She's a student government leader. She is performing in a dance festival that coming weekend. Overall, she is a well rounded, mature young woman who has a bright future. Then he said "...and she wouldn't be like this if it weren't for our school. If she were in some over-crowded, failing high school, she wouldn't be doing any of these things." The conversation moved on. I held my tongue.
The principal, the student herself, and my classmates all seemed to buy into this idea that if it weren't for THIS school, this girl would be nothing. That is not empowering the student. That, to me, is actually undermining the student in order to make yourself, your school, and your political cause look successful. What about resilience? Wouldn't this bright, talented girl be able to better herself even in a "failing" school? Isn't she responsible for her own success? I couldn't believe he was virtually taking the credit for her achievements.
As we wrapped up our tour, the principal said we were in for a real treat, and that the auditorium was free, so we could check out the space on our way out. He bragged about how the old architecture and artifacts from the early 20th century were still intact, and functioning alongside the newer, more advanced equipment and technology. Walking up to the door, I saw that a rehearsal was clearly going on. There were signs posted all over the school that the spring production of "A Raisin in the Sun" was opening in a few days. This was essentially their dress rehearsal. I asked if we wouldn't be interrupting the students at work, and the principal reassured me, that it was fine, don't worry. Now, as a performer, I know, and maybe some of you reading know how disturbing, rude, and disrespectful it is to walk into a closed rehearsal. But the principal didn't care, or even see it that way. You see, it was very important that he show off his beautiful space to these prospective teachers, and it was important that we know that they are doing a very difficult and important play such as "Raisin in the Sun". That was more important than letting the students work in peace. That is not empowering the students. That is once again, undermining them.
So there is my experience, thus far, with the new, progressive, small school movement. It's supposed to be for and about the kids. But to me it looks like an exercise in intellectualism, self-importance, and snobbery. Because if you really want to empower the students, like the motto claims, the performing arts are key. That is a tangent I may have to reserve for a separate entry. If this were about the students, he wouldn't have dragged that girl into the room and discussed her as if she were the subject of anthropology study, and he would have at least given the drama students the dignity of a closed rehearsal (or at the very least, asked the adults to keep their voices down!).
I think there is a way to empower students and give them confidence, and that lies in the performing arts...
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
No rest for the weary
I can't believe I'm blogging at 2 am.
Actually, I can believe it, because this is the only time I've had to work on my tech assignments, not to mention the other course I'm taking, Inquires into Teaching and Learning. I also have rehearsals every night for the next two weeks for a musical revue/fundraiser I'm in as part of a local theatre company. And I just got cast in a production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean as the young Sissy. It is a wonderful but very complicated drama that flashes between 1955 and 1975. In Texas. Double trouble. I have to work on my twang at the same time.
I have to say that it all makes me very happy though. Busy, yes, but also happy. Going to school, rehearsing for outside projects, finding time to do some homework - such is the life of the performing arts educator!
Actually, I can believe it, because this is the only time I've had to work on my tech assignments, not to mention the other course I'm taking, Inquires into Teaching and Learning. I also have rehearsals every night for the next two weeks for a musical revue/fundraiser I'm in as part of a local theatre company. And I just got cast in a production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean as the young Sissy. It is a wonderful but very complicated drama that flashes between 1955 and 1975. In Texas. Double trouble. I have to work on my twang at the same time.
I have to say that it all makes me very happy though. Busy, yes, but also happy. Going to school, rehearsing for outside projects, finding time to do some homework - such is the life of the performing arts educator!
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